The present invention relates to a crisp cooked dough product and to a method for imparting crispness to dough.
There are numerous food products in which crispness is a very desirable attribute, particularly dough or batter based products such as egg rolls, crackers and corn chips. Crispness can be generally associated in these types of foods with a low water content, a low water activity and an open, porous structure, particularly on the surface of the food. However, because of the low water content and open and porous structure of crisp foods, it has been particularly difficult to obtain and maintain crispness in composite foods in which one food component encloses another food component, especially when the inner food component has a higher moisture content than the outer food component, such as in egg rolls. This problem is exacerbated when the composite food product is cooked, then cooled for storage and distribution, and finally reheated prior to consumption. The steps of cooking, cooling and reheating increase the rate and degree of moisture migration from the moist inner component to the drier, crisp outer component, reducing the crispness of the composite food product.
One approach to reducing this type of moisture migration is to add a barrier to the composite food product to minimize moisture migration from the moist region to the crisp region. Breading or other dry coatings may provide such a barrier. Another approach has been to use a batter to form an outer coating. The batters may include ingredients such as modified starches that act as moisture barriers and moisture absorbers.
Another approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,744, issued Jul. 23, 1996 to Miller, et al. Miller et al. describe a method for preparing a dough that has ridges and valleys.
The dough has a moisture gradient between the outer surface of the dough and an unridged inner surface of the dough.
Although there have been attempts at providing crispness to composite food products, none of the prior methods have been successful at retaining sufficient crispness after the product has been cooked, cooled and reheated.